Brian Malow

If you know me, you know I like my insect photography. I primarily shoot (and release) live insects. But who amongst us hasn’t seen a dead bug posing while reposing in death and felt the need to capture that macabre Kodak moment? If my eyes are the only eyes of the universe to observe this detail, am I not obligated to record it?

But this guy at Muhr Photography takes it to a new level, combining real live dead flies with simple line drawings. And I think they’re hilarious. I applaud the idea and the execution. I’m jealous!

After you start the slideshow – click the icon in the lower left corner to make it bigger so you can see the titles (in some cases, it helps you appreciate the image). Or you can see this gallery and others here.

Brian

Greg

Brian

I’m just a hobbyist. The first camera that got me started was a cheap point-and-click from Olympus. It happened to have both a Macro setting and a SuperMacro setting which was really good (although, only in good, direct sunlight – otherwise, it would do too long an exposure). So that got me shooting tiny things and especially insects.

A few years ago I got my first digital SLR: an entry-level Canon Rebel XT. And I got a Canon 60mm macro lens (which is also great for portraits).

Still, some of my favorite pics were taken with the point-and-click. But the picture quality of the Canon is much more beautiful.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure all of the InsectPaparazzi pics I’ve so far posted were taken with the old Olympus. I’ll be adding more – including the Canon pics – as I go along.

Brian

The average life span for a housefly in the wild is approximately one month. They can survive longer indoors, where temperatures are consistently moderate. Houseflies pass through the egg, larval and pupal stages in approximately 10 days, after which adult flies emerge. Houseflies cease growth after emerging from their pupae.

Houseflies are covered with small hairs that serve as taste organs. Their compound eyes are extremely complex: thousands of individual lenses allow them to see 360-degrees at a time.

Houseflies are major carriers of disease. They are known to transfer over 100 pathogens, including typhoid, tuberculosis, cholera and malaria. Houseflies collect these pathogens on their legs and mouths when feeding on feces, trash and other decaying material.

But wait there are good things too! “Much of our knowledge of animal genetics and development has been acquired using the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster (family Drosophilidae) as an experimental subject (Lawrence, 1992).”
“The earliest fossil flies are known from the Upper Triassic of the Mesozoic geological period, some 225 million years ago (Evenhuis, 1995). Since that time they have diversified to become one of the largest groups of organisms. There have been about 120,000 species of flies formally described by scientists; thus about 1 in every 10 animals described is a fly.”http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/ftp/bwiegman/fly_html/diptera.html